“We can.”
Noah watched as he shifted two pieces lower.
“You have to make the bottom stronger first,” Dominic said.
Noah copied him.
Grace stood in the kitchen doorway.
For several minutes, neither man nor boy looked at her.
Dominic did not ask questions.
He did not examine Noah for more evidence of himself.
He simply helped build the bridge.
When it finally held, Noah grinned.
The expression was Grace’s.
That nearly broke Dominic more than the gray eyes had.
“Mom! Look!”
“I see it.”
Noah turned back to Dominic.
“You’re good at this.”
“I’ve had practice making things stay standing.”
Grace’s gaze sharpened at the irony.
Dominic heard it too.
Noah reached for another block.
Then, without warning, he asked, “Were you really Mom’s friend?”
Grace went still.
Dominic looked at her.
She had made one rule the night before: no questions about Noah in front of him.
She had never told Dominic what to say if Noah questioned him.
Dominic chose carefully.
“I used to be very important to your mother.”
Noah frowned.
“What happened?”
Dominic glanced at the bridge between them.
“I made some bad decisions.”
“Did you say sorry?”
Grace’s breath caught softly.
Dominic looked at the seven-year-old boy who had unknowingly reduced an entire ruined marriage to the simplest possible question.
“Not properly.”
Noah shrugged.
“You should.”
Then he went back to his blocks.
Dominic rose.
Grace followed him into the kitchen.
He put on his coat but left his gloves on the table for a moment.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“You said a few minutes.”
She studied him, perhaps waiting for the demand she had spent seven years fearing.
It never came.
Instead Dominic said, “I want a test.”
Her face hardened.
“Not because I think you’re lying,” he added.
“Because if I am going to enter his life, nothing about this can rest on assumptions.
Not mine.
Not yours.”
Grace considered that.
“And if it confirms what I told you?”
Dominic looked toward the living room.
Noah was making engine noises while pushing the toy train beneath the tree.
“Then I ask what you will allow me to do next.”
